Caravaggio to maintain his unbeaten record

Our thoughts on Saturday at Newmarket

Roly Poly lived up to the hype on day two at Newmarket, ending a convincing winner of the Falmouth Stakes. Favourite backers had plenty to shout about – we now look forward to a thrilling Saturday.

The July Cup headlines a seven-race card and you can place your bets on the main event, or any of the supporting acts, right here at Coral. Click now to have your say. Fancy landing a big price accumulator? Our race-by-race selections are designed to help, while Coral’s team preview the big one.

Limato a nice price to defend

A star-studded 10-runner field have turned out for the 2017 renewal of the July Cup, with famous names such as Limato, Tasleet and Brando making up the pack, but it’ll be a one-horse race, certainly according to our traders, who have marked Caravaggio up as hot favourite.

Limato came out on top in the historic race 12 months ago, under the ride of Harry Bentley, and the five-year-old gelding is a second favourite this time, currently doing the rounds at 9/2. Fancy two in-a-row? He was last seen placing third at Royal Ascot behind race rivals The Tin Man and Tasleet in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.

Caravaggio a worthy favourite

Far more convincing is Aidan O’Brien’s talented colt Caravaggio. The three-year-old goes into the race with a 100 per cent record, six wins from six starts. Made a winning debut at Dundalk last April in a maiden and claimed his first major scalp two months later, a solid winner of the group two Coventry Stakes. Since then he’s gone from strength to strength, winning a pair of group ones – Phoenix Stakes and, most recently, Commonwealth Cup.

Despite going off an odds-on favourite at Royal Ascot, he didn’t have things all his own way, but that only made the win all the sweeter. Caravaggio never looked happy in the build-up, and it was little surprise to see him miss the break, but once eased into the race and pushed along by Ryan Moore, he got to work and run on to edge out Harry Angel.

O’Brien arrives in fine form

For as good as the NAP has been so far, we think there’s still improvement in him, and hopefully we will see an example of that on Saturday. It’ll be a brave punter who takes him to lose his unbeaten record here. Ryan Moore is back in the saddle, and that can’t be taken lightly.

July has been kind to followers of the O’Brien yard, and Caravaggio should enhance that. The selection is 11/10 at the time of writing, but the trainer’s other entry, Intelligence Cross is only there to make up the numbers, 100/1 the call.